School was mixed... as always

Cindi raised an eyebrow at him when he bustled into Biology class barely on time. "Problems?"

"Uh, my mom got laid off so Karen and I were trying to show her how to use online job engines."

"How did that work?"

"Realistically? Terrible. Retail is dead and that's what she's done all her life. The only things I could find were like sex streaming."

Cindi nodded. "Yeah, the Coronavirus wiped out all the mom and pop stores and Amazon and Walmart killed the rest. My mom tells me they used to go 'recreational shopping,' meaning going to a shopping mall or department store as a destination just to buy things they don't need."

"What's wrong with that?" Tanya interrupted. "I like to go shopping for things I don't need. It makes me feel better to get something that looks pretty or whatever."

"Yeah, I like that, too," Cindi said. "But all the little retail places that used to sell things have pretty much closed. Either you buy on Amazon or Etsy or Walmart.com."

"Or you can go to New York or Hong Kong," Natasha put in. "If you want custom clothes that's what you have to do."

Talk about another world. Matt spent his time worrying whether he could get free shipping on his jeans from Walmart while Natasha considered whether to go to New York or Hong Kong for custom designs.

"Anyway, what is your mom going to do?" Cindi asked.

Matt shook his head. "Most of the job listings were scams or sexwork. She's not feeling the sexwork and I'm not letting her fall for the scams."

"Maybe she should play the stock market," Natasha suggested. "My dad says investments are the key to financial success."

"There's nothing wrong with sex work," Tanya put in. "My mother says that sex workers should have the same rights and protections as any other worker."

"Maybe," Matt said. "But they don't. Besides, my mother isn't interested in going online and masturbating for a bunch of horny guys."

"Like, who would," Tanya asked. "Do you think all those starlets like screwing my dad. Gross."

"I still think investments are the way to go," Natasha repeated. "Over any ten year period since the great depression, the stock market has yielded an excellent return on investment. Every single ten year period."

Matt bit his tongue. Sure investments were great... but they assumed you actually had money to start out with. They weren't going to get rich investing the couple of thousand he and Karen could come up with.

"Can she act?" Tanya asked. "My dad is always complaining about the lack of talent out there."

Matt considered. "Probably not. Besides, I've seen what your dad's female actors have to go through to get jobs. I wouldn't want to put my mom through that."

Tanya shrugged. "It's the real world. You're either fucking or getting fucked. And if you're looking to break in, if you're not already on top, you're the one getting fucked."

"I'd appreciate it if you'd ask him. I can send you a headshot when I get home if you think it would help."

Tanya shrugged again. "All I can do is ask. Might be better than streaming sex, right?"

"Streaming sex," Dr. Dyle finally woke up to the conversation that had been going on for at least five minutes. "Matt, we won't have any of that streaming sex here. If I hear any more about it, you're off to the principal."

Since Tanya had been the one who'd said it, Matt didn't think that was quite fair. Then again, there was a lot of that not quite fair going on.